Town Square

Gov. Jerry Brown, seeking to promote his Proposition 30 tax initiative, told a San Francisco audience Thursday that, "the California
dream is still vibrant," but said the tax increase is needed to keep it that way.

Here is what happened the last time we raised taxes for schools. All the $ went to make up the gap for the under funded teachers union pension fund. Nada for the students. Go Figure. This is from the Wall Street Journal btw.
But Democrats in the legislature won't lower tax rates because they love the revenue windfalls they get when times are good and they can boost spending.
Then when markets crash, they can cry havoc and lobby for still-higher taxes. That's what the teachers unions did as recently as 2008, claiming that cuts that would have merely returned education spending to pre-bubble levels would cripple schools. Caving to the union pressure, a handful of Republican legislators in 2009 walked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plank and voted for a $13 billion sales and income tax increase. Schools received less money over the next two years anyway while spending on entitlements and union retirement benefits grew.

I really want to see 30, 38, A & D go down in flames!!! The unions have a chokehold on this state and it is time to break them! By the way, the misleading advertising for the prop is disgusting. It is partially being funded by the nurses union (for education - really?!) and the nurses were just striking again. When are Californias going to wake up and smell the coffee?

Posted by Citizen Paine
a resident of Danville
on Nov 5, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Wow -- whodathunk that out-of-state billionaires would so hate California's schoolchildren that they would try to anonymously invest $11 Million -- not to aid education, but just to hurt the chances of Prop 30, which DOES aid education.

Nasty bunch, those billionaires. Web Link But at least they have the good sense to be ashamed of what they're doing, and are trying to stay hidden.

Posted by Sylence Dugood
a resident of Danville
on Nov 5, 2012 at 10:45 pm

I think we are focusing our attentions on too little a fish. The unions that we traditionally target our misplaced disgust at for shaking us down for more every year ARE THE WRONG ONES. My fellow Americans, there is a greater evil forcing us to take nearly every last penny out of our pockets just to fund their seeming every whim, their gross operational inefficiencies and most despairingly, their egotistically inflated, cries for high salaries and protected retirements with generous healthcare plans. We are not afforded such luxuries, why should such a select group of individuals be afforded such benefits at our expense! Who and where may this evil be found? I'll tell you.

Need proof of my words? Just watch what happens to our beloved Giants this off-season. One Angel Pagan, buoyed by his union reps (ie angels of darkness) and his agent (arch angel of darkness) will command $15MM for 4 years or more from some heartless dictatorship in another realm (eg Cincinnati, Philadelphia). I for one want to go back to the days before Catfish Hunter. Yes, back to the days when these 'bargaining unit' employees had to earn an honest day's pay (during the season) and then sell insurance in the off-season to make ends meet. To my earlier point, what's a $60k teacher and $120k police officer to a $60MM center fielder? Small fish, I tell you. Want to be even more angered? Some work only 16 days a year. A few more if they perform well. Some perhaps work 162 days a year but tend to stand around on the job during most of their work-day. At best, they swing lumber, like the rest of us, maybe only 4-5 times a workday. FOR THIS, they get a retirement fairly early in life? I SAY NO!

Help me, my fellow Americans. It's your money and mine that generally feeds the Beast's insatiable appetite. I have season tickets to three (out of four) of these Devilish institutions. It's only a matter of time before I will be forced to give up one of them and that, my friends and neighbors, is simply unAmerican.

Jerry Brown is a liar as are most politicians. Schools do not need more money. They need to budget wisely. I refuse to give another dime to educate the lazy and illegals. In Redwood City, and throughout the state, pregnant girls get gov checks while their parents get $1000 per "claimed" dependent on their alternative tax ID #. No one checks. Families brag about checks often $10,000.00. I'm putting arsenic in the gravy train today----

Jerry Brown is a liar as are most politicians. Schools do not need more money. They need to budget wisely. I refuse to give another dime to educate the lazy and illegals. In Redwood City, and throughout the state, pregnant girls get gov checks while their parents get $1000 per "claimed" dependent on their alternative tax ID #. No one checks. Families brag about checks often $10,000.00. I'm putting arsenic in the gravy train today----